Voces on Milwaukee Unrest: Solidarity with Sherman Park

MILWAUKEE — In response to the civil unrest in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood following the killing of Sylville Smith by the Milwaukee Police, Voces de la Frontera issued the following statement:

“We echo the call for the immediate release of the video of the police killing of Sylville Smith and for an impartial and transparent investigation into his tragic death,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera. “We condemn Governor Walker’s unnecessary and provocative activation of the National Guard, and we call on Sheriff Clarke to leave Sherman Park.

Right now we need to listen to the people of Sherman Park and to the African-American community in our city, who have faced decades of marginalization and divestment thanks to the closure of factories that provided union jobs and living wages, the foreclosure crisis, the defunding and closing of public schools, the profusion of policies that criminalize and jail poor people of color, and the growth of low wage jobs and chronic unemployment.

We re-commit ourselves to the work of justice and to linking the struggle for immigrant rights to the Black Lives Matter movement to address the conditions that contributed to this explosion of anger.”